Characterization of Surface and Aloft Winds for Advanced Parallel Runway Operations

Abstract

The increase in demand for air travel throughput has resulted in an effort to identify novel techniques for improving efficiency. One such effort targets the barrier imposed by wake turbulence separation standards—reducing interaircraft spacing during radar operations. Recently, concepts have focused on exploiting the effects of wake transport under wind fields by developing wind-dependent procedures that mitigate wake hazards during favorable wind conditions. However, the challenge with regard to computing benefits during conditional time epochs requires methodology designed for a niche modeling area that even sophisticated airport capacity simulation models lack. This work attempts to augment the capacity computation by presenting a characterization of the favorable crosswind availability across a range of thresholds and aloft monitoring heights based on Rapid Update Cycle and aviation system performance measure weather data. The focus is on presenting a generalization of wind behavior and on providing insight into the effects of the wind on the applicability of wind-dependent wake-based procedures. Data for nine major U.S. airports currently operating closely spaced parallel runways are analyzed.